


Absinthe

by camichats



Series: Dictionary Prompts [74]
Category: Marvel
Genre: Established Relationship, Immortal Tony Stark, M/M, Past Lives, Reincarnated Bucky Barnes, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:15:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21640801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Tony lives, and Bucky gets reborn again and again and again. Tony always finds him. If someone were to give it a label, it would probably be soulmates.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Series: Dictionary Prompts [74]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1027923
Comments: 22
Kudos: 269





	Absinthe

"Jacques?" Tony asked. 

"Antoine," he said, after a little deliberation and more thinking than was strictly necessary for just saying his name.

Tony noticed a bottle on the table. It was alcohol though he didn't know what kind since it was unfamiliar to him. "Having a good time?" 

Jacques made a face, clearly saying that even though he was on the drunker side of tipsy, he wasn't really. "Malaria preventative. You should have some, keep you from getting sick." 

Tony hadn't gotten around to telling him that he was immortal yet. He'd probably have time, but it was such a hassle when he didn't remember it on his own. He was always up for a new experience though, so he joined Jacques at the table. They didn't have the luxury of glasses, so Tony took a swig from the bottle. Then promptly gagged and shoved the bottle into Jacques's chest. "What the fuck? How much have you had, this tastes like _poison_." 

He rolled his eyes. "It's not poison, it's absinthe. All the men have to have a drink a day or risk dying from that stupid virus. You lose drinking privileges if you refuse," he added, which explained why he'd agreed to it. Tony had learned a long time ago that when you're in a country's military, you had two options when you were off duty. 1. Drink. 2. Play games. Right now it was poker, sometimes it was dice or other card games. "And I promised I'd get you to drink your share." He picked up the bottle and jiggled it in Tony's direction temptingly. Or what he thought was temptingly. For something that tasted that horrible, no amount of Jacques trying to sell it was going to make it look good. Well, maybe if Jacques was naked and all he had for coverage was the bottle; that'd be pretty good. It seemed like he was thinking in the same direction as Tony, because he leaned forward a moment later, familiar smirk on his face. "I'll make it worth your time." 

Tony sighed, pulling Jacques easily onto his lap. "You'd better." 

* * *

Tony met Bucky, and he recognized him. Bucky met Tony, and the only flash of recognition was as Howard's son and Iron Man. That wasn't really an issue since they'd done this a hundred times before. Sometimes Tony would tell him as soon as they met, other times he'd wait to jog his memory until they'd been together a while and Bucky wouldn't think he was crazy-- a mistake he'd made once or twice, but Bucky always remembered before things got too bad. Every now and then Bucky would remember all by himself, and that was the nicest. Tony could have-- and wanted to-- told Bucky the truth now, even before they got together, but he was having so many problems with his memory that Tony didn't want to add to it. 

So he kept their connection to himself and waited for Bucky to settle. He'd fully expected that this time, he'd have to tell Bucky. He wasn't going to remember on his own and save them both a lot of grief. 

Tony was sitting at the kitchen table, a boring contract for SI stretched in front of him. He had glasses on right now, not that they were entirely necessary. He could've fixed his eyes in an instant, but glasses were pretty new, and he liked the extra weight on his face. He looked up when something hard and glass clicked on the table in front of him. Absinthe. Frowning, he looked up, catching straight in Bucky's gaze. He knew. 

"Want a glass?" 

"I didn't then, and I definitely don't now." 

Bucky grinned, sitting near him and pulling the bottle closer since Tony wasn't going to need it. "Y'know what's confusing?" he said, popping the top off and taking a swig. 

"The fact that you're drinking that?" 

He shrugged. "It doesn't taste as bad to me right now." 

"How lucky for you." Tony's tastes rarely changed, which meant that he occasionally found himself craving food from millennia ago, whereas Bucky got a new body and could experience food in a new way every few decades. Although, in this body it was going to be more like a few centuries. 

He gave Tony a smirk, took another drink, then said, "I thought you'd look younger." 

"Why, exactly?" 

"Don't you normally age with me? I'm not exactly in my mid-forties," he said, gesturing to his body that was probably thirty years old. 

"Normally I choose to age with you, and that's why we look the same." 

"You can choose to age?" 

More like he could control every part of his body like he was a kid going apeshit on a makeover game. He tended to go for dark hair and dark eyes because it felt like him in a way the lighter versions didn't, but he'd been an animal before, not to mention every way, shape, and form of a human. "Something like that. Fyi mister frosty, I'm not kissing you if you taste like that." 

"Aw c'mon, it's good!" 

"It tastes like piss. And there was a time when you didn't like it either," he pointed out. "I'm rich right now, like mega rich, I could get you alcohol that _actually_ tastes good and costs a thousand dollars a glass." 

Bucky wrinkled his nose. "Tell me that's not what you're spendin' your money on doll." 

"Not most of the time, no." 

Making a show of it, Bucky put the lid back on the absinthe and pushed it away from them. "Why does everyone think you're Howard's kid? I may not remember everything yet, but I know you don't get reborn like me." 

"I met him in World War Two, there was enough resemblance that he thought I was his brother, and I didn't exactly discourage it." 

"You little sneak," he smirked. He was leaning forward on the table, head resting in his metal hand-- that was a new development, one Tony couldn't wait to explore when they got the time. Not to mention that it was going to be interesting to see the integration of cyborgs and AI's in the future. Could Bucky potentially be reborn as an AI or comparable entity? So far he'd always had a corporeal body, but times were getting interesting very quickly. Some days it felt like they were sprinting towards advancement, where everything else had been at a leisurely pace. "So you were his brother, then what?" 

"Nephew. Howard found out he couldn't have kids, I aged down, Howard's brother was declared dead, and voila." 

"You can age yourself down?" he asked, frowning. Then, thinking back on it, of course he could. It's not like he was eternally getting older while Bucky looped. 

"Yep." 

"So, hypothetically, you could-" he wiggled his fingers vaguely as he searched for an appropriate word "-reverse and be my twink boyfriend." 

Tony threw the folder at him, and Bucky-- the ass-- caught it with a shit eating grin. 

"Just joshin' ya. I love the silver fox look on you, always have." 

"Really? Because I remember-" 

Bucky was out of his seat and on Tony's lap in a flash. His grin turned to something softer, that look in his eyes that always meant love. He leaned down and pressed a feather light kiss to Tony's lips. 

His glasses were in the way, so he took them off, craning up for another that Bucky readily gave. 

"What happened to not kissin' me with absinthe?" 

Now that Bucky was talking, it was easy to smell the stink of hard alcohol on his breath. Tony'd had worse. But he wasn't going to admit as much, because then Bucky would just grab the bottle and down some more to prove a point, and Tony missed him too much to actually stop. Instead, Tony gave a shudder, his body changing to how he looked as Tony Stark fifteen years ago. His hair was softer, a little shaggier, the lines on his face smoothed over, and the glasses on the table now unnecessary (though maybe he'd change that back, it all depended). He winked at Bucky just to be a little shit, and Bucky laughed, kissing him again with a smile on his face. 

"How are you going to explain that to th' team?" 

"I'll think of something." 


End file.
